Xolos come back to beat Monterrey

TIJUANA  Club Tijuana scored twice in the final 15 minutes to come from behind and beat Rayados de Monterrey 2-1 on Friday night at Estadio Caliente.

After falling behind 1-0 in the 65th minute, the Xolos finally broke through to earn the win on late goals by forward Dario Benedetto and midfielder Cristian Pellerano.

The victory secured Tijuana (3-2-1) three points and momentarily moves the team into fourth place in the Liga MX Clausura standings.

The Tijuana attack was stale for much of the match and the team was lucky to reach halftime without conceding a goal after Monterrey missed two excellent scoring chances in the first half.

But Tijuana was not so fortunate in the 65th minute when Monterrey’s César Delgado cut in from his right side and unleashed a shot from outside of the penalty box that beat two defenders and Tijuana goalkeeper Cirilo Saucedo for a 1-0 Monterrey lead.

Xolos head coach César Farías responded to the goal by replacing American forward Herculez Gomez with the younger, faster Benedetto, and the move paid immediate dividends.

In the 75th minute Tijuana earned a corner kick that was played directly in front of the goal. Pellerano headed it down and toward the far post, where his Argentine countryman Benedetto was able to run it down and slam a point-blank shot into the top of the goal. The goal was the first scored by a Tijuana forward this season.

Another second-half sub and the two Argentines combined for the Xolos’ winning goal in the 86th minute when Benedetto beat a defender and made a crossing pass that sailed all the way to the back post. Juan Hernández headed the pass back across the goal, where Pellerano was waiting to score the winner.